In Virginia, White Identity Politics

The new Republican governor of Virginia has brought back a not-very-old tradition abandoned by his two Democratic predecessors, designating April Confederate History Month. I don't think this has anything to do with Confederate History. It is a matter of identity, an assertion that it is a fine thing to be a southern white man. As a white man born in Richmond, I have a certain sympathy with this point of view, but I wish they wouldn't keep dragging the Great Slaveowners' Secession into it. Many white southerners identify with the Rebels and view all attacks on the Confederacy as attacks on them. If I say, "We shouldn't be celebrating the Confederacy because the whole point was the preservation of race slavery," they hear "White southerners are no good."

The Civil War was a great disaster, and what's more it was a disaster staged by a particular group of people, wealthy slaveowners, who managed to convince most southerners that Lincoln's plan to exclude slavery from all the territories was a great threat to the South. They lied, and led their followers to ruin. But the descendants of those foolish followers take pride in how hard their ancestors fought against outsiders invading their homes. They don't like to be told that their ancestors' blood was spilled in a bad cause. They don't like to be lectured on the stain of racism or the legacy of slavery. And since everything that makes them feel lectured or criticized only makes them more determined to vote for conservative Republicans, maybe liberals should just ignore the whole business. After all, we won the war, and we have the Civil Rights Act in place. We can afford to look away from a little rebel flag waving.